Another South African lesbian murder

A past couple of months I blogged about almost seven murders of LGBTI people, and today I find myself writing about yet another murder of a young lesbian woman in Cape Town. This morning (10/11/2012) I received a call from Ndumie Funda the founder and Director of Lulekisizwe a project that nurses, supports and feeds the lesbian bisexual and trans woman (LBT) in townships who are victims and survivors of “corrective rape”, whom I had just seen the day before and we were just talking about the current situation facing the LGBTI community in Cape Town especially in the townships. Funda sounded stressed and in shock over the phone when she asked me to get the word out about the murder of Sihle Skotshi (19) who was an active member of Lulekisizwe. Later I met up with Funda and had an opportunity to interview the two survivors of the attack who were with Sihle when she died.

The attack and murder of the aforementioned victims happened last night (09/11/12) at around 11 at night in Cosovo an informal settlement in Phillipi Cape Town. The three young women were drinking at a nearby tavern when they ran out of money for alcohol. Sihle (the woman who died) asked one her friends to borrow her R50 so they can buy more alcohol, the friend agreed, but they had to go and get the money from the friend’s house who resides not far from the tavern where they were drinking. The three women left leaving another friend who is also a victim of “corrective rape” just a month ago and had not reported the rape, nor gone for medical checkup of sexual transmitted disease and pregnancy with the fear of the perpetrators receiving bail and going after her. On their way to fetch the money they passed a male who greeted them whom they know, but on their way back to the tavern that is when they were confronted by five or more males who were swearing at them and said “Ayo ndawo yenu le, yindawo yamaVura”-(this is not your place, it is amavura’s place) (Amavura is the gang that is known and feared in the area). In the midst of the attack one of the gang members pulled out a mini spear and stabbed Sihle in the chest. One of Sihle’s friends attempted to intervene and she also got stabbed in left arm, whilst the other friend ran to tell the other friend and to try and get a car that will take Sihle to hospital.

Sihle passed away in hospital and according to the friend who was with Sihle before she took her last breath, Sihle uttered her last words saying “Please apologize for me to my mother, and I love you all”. The survivors were teary throughout the interview; I could see they were shaken by what they had witnessed. Who wouldn’t be? I mean seeing your friend die in front of you is not a joke and the thought that you might be wanted by the perpetrators is enough to scare anyone. I was shaken by just listening to them telling the story, and what is even worse is the fact they have to go back to the same township where the attack took place, they live by themselves and they are targets of homophobia as they are constantly victimized and called names. Listening and seeing the fear that these young women go through really broke my heart. The fact that after so many years that homosexuality has been acknowledged by the government to be legal and is equally recognized as a constitutional right, but still homosexuals are being murdered and raped is just fucked up.

While I was posting the news on the social networks I already knew the kind of comments I would be getting such as “what have we done to deserve this?”, “these bustards why are they killing us”, “something needs to be done, this getting out of hand”, blah blah blah… Fact is, “we” never really do anything about it, unless it is protesting and yapping on social networks about these crimes. Maybe we should look at ourselves first, activists do their bit but, what about the rest of the homosexual community? Think about it if we stood together in the fight for our rights maybe, just maybe we could be heard and taken seriously. Or maybe we should start by educating each other about safety measures, these young lesbians need our help and we can do that by guiding, nurturing and teaching them how to protect themselves. So my plea to you guys is let us support each other in whatever struggles to fight for our freedom, after all activists are not fighting for themselves alone but for the whole homosexual community at large. The least we can do is to support and help them. So next time you see my facebook updates with invites to marches, workshops and research studies please take part you are not only helping me but also yourselves because the findings could take us one step closer to our freedom. The cliché that division of labor gets the job done quicker was not created just for the fun of it, it does work. So think about it if we help each other in our fight for freedom as homosexuals we might just get it sooner than we think.

Sihle was a friendly young woman to those who knew her; she was a soccer player and has recently matriculated and was working and saving money to study further. Another young lesbian has been murdered if we don’t do anything about these murders we might as well look forward to WHO IS NEXT?!

18 comments on “Another South African lesbian murder”

its always hard breaking 2 knw dat they r cruel ppl out there wu bliv taking sum1’s breathe is a solution. May ha soul rest in peace and I hope dat by ha blood being shared and many others b4 ha may JUSTICE BE SERVED!

Hi..am gay and am gonna talk accorcording to the experience I have with so lesbians.lesbians turn to feel way too confortable arround straight guys forgetting that they are not like them.when a men sees a lady all he wants is sex,so gals be very careful when u r arround boys..boys r just sex maniac n would do any thing to stick it in.

I am shaken and angry at the whole Phillipi community… Where was evryone when this cruelty took place? I am not gay .. Bt the love I have 4 them is unconditional I have a gay and proud cousin whom I love to bits 4 his confidents.. Would love to take part in activities that supports gays… Bt I dnt receive invites at all… My condolences 2 Sihle’s family akuhlanga lungehlanga … Pholani amanxeba uyokuphumla… Ugqatso ulifezile wayidlala indima yakhe icekwa lishiyeke nabasahamba kulomhlaba unamagada ahlabayi…..

This is sad for real, and its getting out of hand now…i have no words, im like a chicekn when it comes to speak about cruelity towards homosexual humans…i for one i think while there are still no measures or plans in place to eliminate this crazy acts, homo people should try and distance themselves from smokol huises, as it seems as if most of these acts are condoned in the vicinities, i know i may sound that im saying they should isolate themselves in a free and so called decocratic environment, in way yes, take this as u hide, while plann, then you fight with a plan…people should be free no matter u are straight or homo. I stay in Gugs, everytime i pass at ny1, i see gay/leasian people having their own place to chileks, which is one of a start to build your own territory..2nd, i think if there will be judo/karate classes and so on in our areas, that will do a bit, excirceing and also getting some tactics to protect oneself while uGovernement does nothing, this is all up to us, as they say there are many ways to kill a cat, so march and protest that goes unheard, other strategy should be tried…

I don’t have much to say, am just not happy about this issue. killing un inocent soul is something very big. may the Almight give her family peace, and help the world to come with solutions that will not discriminate anyone’s rights and people live in peace. Take action guys and keep on hoping, one day is one day, you will overcome this things and live freely as everybody, as the day you were born, you were born freely and everyone loves you. why a change suddenly. There are this statement which says; if one don’t like a thing he/she must change it for the better. Make a change not to kill.

What a sweet soul she was yaz .its still hard to believe tht she’s no more,am nt gonna see her white smile ….I agree with u tht we need to educate each other on how to behave we can be lesbians bt fact remain we woman and thts hw guys see us walking at night,hang around with guys and jam in sheebens is nt on thts where they get platform to do all this cruelity but I say Aluta continue. May Sihles soul rest in peace ama miss her sooo hard😥

as a father of a lesbian daughter i find this so disgusting and disturbing my daughter was rapped because of her choice in life our government needs to step in. I am disgusted by this so called corrective rape and murder. Who are we to judge